Guide for New Students

Chair: Professor Jenny Bourne

Economics analyzes the ways in which scarce resources are allocated across competing uses, both by businesses in production decisions and individuals in consumption choices. It also investigates how resources can be organized most effectively to meet a variety of objectives, including public policy goals.

Can I major in it?

Yes, a major is offered.

Topics explored

Individual choice, organization of firms, inflation, investment, international activities, economic history, the economics of developing countries, the economics of sports, law and economics, environmental economics, and finance.

How to get started

The basic course sequence, ECON 110: Principles of Macroeconomics and ECON 111: Principles of Microeconomics, is a prerequisite for most advanced courses. Either course may be taken first. Courses numbered below 300 are open to first-year students who have completed ECON 110 and 111 (or their equivalents).

ECON 110. Principles of Macroeconomics This course gives students a foundation in the general principles of economics as a basis for effective citizenship and, when combined with 111, as a preparation for all advanced study in economics. Topics include analysis of the measurement, level, and distribution of national income; the concepts of inflation and depression; the role and structure of the banking system; fiscal and monetary stabilization techniques; implications of and limits to economic growth; and international economic relations. This course is offered every term.

ECON 111. Principles of Microeconomics This course gives the students a foundation in the general principles of economics as a basis for effective citizenship and, when combined with 110, as a preparation for all advanced study in economics. Topics include consumer choice theory; the formation of prices under competition, monopoly, and other market structures; the determination of wages, profits, and income from capital; the distribution of income; and an analysis of policy directed towards problems of public finance, pollution, natural resources, and public goods. This course is offered every term.